6. Tin Pan Alley

Gilsey House near Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley, a stretch of Twenty-Eighth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues was where hundreds of patriotic songs were produced during the war. For the first half of the twentieth century, this was the location of the popular music industry. Musicians, songwriters, composers, and sheet music publishers flocked here. Soon after the industry took over Twenty-eighth Street, songwriters turned out pro-American songs by the boatload.

Among the forgotten tunes of yesteryear from the war: “Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy,” “Yankee Girl, I’m Coming Back to You,” “Good-Bye Broadway, Hello France,” and “We’re Going to Hang the Kaiser Under the Linden Tree.” Post-war, the music industry moved uptown to 1619 Broadway, the Brill Building, and Tin Pan Alley moved with it.